Kiwis reflect on 9/11 terror attacks

REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2008: A statue depicting a New York City police officer comforting a young girl in the 9/11 attacks is seen during the seventh anniversary of the disaster in Broomfield, Colorado, 2008.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2007: Relatives of 9/11 victims make their way along the ramp to a reflecting pool at Ground Zero at the World Trade Centre site, New York, September 11, 2007.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2006: US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, pauses after laying a wreath at the 9/11 Flight 93 crash site in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, 2006.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2004: A fireman takes part in a commemoration of the victims of the 9/11 attacks at Camp Victory in Baghdad, September 11, 2004. The ceremony was held in one of the former palaces of the Iraqi former President Saddam Hussein.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2006: A woman wears a ribbon and pins in honour of her son who was killed during the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, during a ground breaking ceremony for a memorial in Washington, 2006. The memorial commemorates the 184 lives lost when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2004: The 9/11 Commission Report was unveiled in 2004. The commission investigating the September 11 attacks reported 'deep institutional failings' and missed opportunities by both the Bush and Clinton administrations to thwart the hijackings.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2003: Nancy Dwyer, whose sister Lucy Fishman died in the World Trade Centre attacks, joins a demonstration in 2003, against development of commercial structures within the area of the site and calling for a memorial built from bedrock of the World Trade Centre towers.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2002: Thousands of mourners of victims of the attack on the World Trade Centre converged at 'ground zero'. One by one, the names of 2801 victims of the attacks echoed over the devastated site.

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WORLD TRADE CENTRE ATTACKS 2001: Hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 approaches and hits the World Trade Centre's south tower, bursting into flames and raining a hail of debris on Manhattan. A gaping hole in the north tower can be seen following a similar attack earlier in the day.

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PENTAGON PLANE: The Pentagon building in Washington suffered major damage after a hijacked commercial airliner, American Airlines Flight 77, crashed into it.

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SEARCH FOR SURVIVORS: Firefighters comb the remains of the World Trade Centre after the collapse.

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TOWERS COLLAPSE: Smoke and debris fill the air after one of the World Trade Centre towers in New York City collapses.

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TWIN TOWERS: Rescue workers remove a man from the World Trade Centre tower in New York City. Both towers were hit by planes crashing into the building. Victims from the attack, many suffering from extensive burns - began arriving at hospitals about an hour after the jets slammed into the buildings.

HELP NEEDED: A New York City fireman calls for more rescue workers to make their way into the rubble of the World Trade Centre.

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REMEMBERING 9/11 IN 2009: The "Tribute in Lights" illuminates the sky over lower Manhattan on the eighth anniversary of the attacks.

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AFTERMATH: Smoke from the remains of New York's World Trade Center shrouds lower Manhattan on September 12, 2001, the day after the deadly attacks.

Ten years have passed since New Zealander Alan Beaven was killed when the plane he was travelling in crashed into the woods in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001.

His brother Ralph Beaven was in Fiji at the time, huddled with others around a television, intensely watching the news footage as the terrorist attacks - which brought down the Twin Towers - unfolded.

He knew his younger brother was living in New York, but he never thought he would have been killed.

VICTIM: Alan Beaven was the only New Zealander killed in the September 11 terror attacks. He was killed after Flight 93 crashed into the woods in Pennsylvania.

But then he got the phone call.

"I got a call from my sister in Florida and my mother," the Auckland man said.

"They were the calls that told me."

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REMEMBERING: Kimi Beaven and daughter Sonali Beaven, age 5 in photo, hold a picture of Alan Beaven who was killed in the crash of Flight 93 on September 11 in 2001.

Alan was on United Airlines Flight 93, a scheduled flight between New Jersey and San Francisco.

But the flight never arrived at its destination.

Instead, it was taken over by four terrorists and plummeted into the woods near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

It was one of four flights that day that never reached the locations they were heading to.

Two flights sped into the twin towers, causing them to crumble on to the city below, killing thousands of people.

Another plane was flown into the Pentagon in Virginia, killing all of the people on board.

Alan, originally from Milford in Auckland, was a successful environmental lawyer and family man.

He was married to Kimi and had a young daughter Sonali, who Ralph said was about four or five at the time.

He also had two sons from a previous marriage.

Alan's younger sister, who lives in Florida, will travel to Pennsylvania this weekend where she will meet up with Kimi and Solani, who still live in New York.

The trio will spend the next three days attending the anniversary memorials.

"It's amazing it's been 10 years," Ralph said. "It does bring back the emotions and memories of the time, but we've got to move on."

But he said every anniversary was a time of reflection. He said the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this year brought some closure for the family.

"It obviously brings it home to memory so our thoughts will be with [Alan]."

LIFE IN NEW YORK SINCE 9/11

New Yorkers have been on edge since the September 11, 2001 attacks which killed close to 3000 people, New Zealander Brent Stanton says.

But the terrorist attacks have also brought people together and have made New York a "softer" and "friendlier" place.

Stanton has lived in the Big Apple for 24 years. He was there the day the twin towers collapsed after two planes were hijacked and flown into the buildings.

He was there during the days that followed and still lives in the city with his wife and children.

Stanton, originally from Christchurch, said every time there was an earthquake or a power cut, everyone's first thoughts were about the possibility of another terrorist attack.

"The initial thought is someone's planted a bomb or they've flown a plane into the building."

That's what Stanton and his colleagues thought a couple of weeks ago when an earthquake shook their building for about 30 seconds.

"Everyone is on an automatic alert."

He said the Jewish community had cordoned off official buildings and community centres to the general public since the attacks, making it more difficult for outsiders to get in.

There were more street cameras and a higher security presence.

"They're just those little reminders - that there's always that possibility."

Stanton, 54, said New Yorker's were even more on edge in the days leading up to the 10 year anniversary.

"There is always a sense of heightened security ever 9/11 anniversary. Everyone wonders if something else is going to happen."

Stanton said every news outlet was reporting on the possibility of another attack.

He was at work when the events unfolded on that fatal day on September 11, 2001.

"It was such a surreal time," he said. He had started walking home through Central Park while the buildings crumbled behind him, creating a dust cloud that would affect the air quality for several years later.

"There were tonnes of people walking home. Some people had ash all over them. There were just hundreds of people walking in the same direction, away from the towers."

His wife was with their seven-month-old twins and was frantic because she couldn't get hold of him. Cellphone coverage was down.

"She was trying to get hold of me but she couldn't. She said to a total stranger; 'Can I have a hug' and he said 'I need one too'. People were hugging each other - just total strangers."

In the days, weeks and years that followed people continue to reminisce about that day.

"Total strangers were talking to each other, we all had something to say and I think that's continued. Every anniversary people remember."

While New York had a reputation for being an unfriendly, hard place that had changed since the attacks. "I think it's softened a lot because of it and it's stayed that way."

IN THE THICK OF IT

While most people were running away from the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, New Zealander Lauren Quaintance was heading in the opposite direction - straight towards Ground Zero.

Quaintance, originally from Wellington, said her memory of the day and those that followed has since become "packaged and edited".

The magazine editor had been in the Big Apple for just six weeks studying a master's degree at Columbia University when the attacks occurred.

She was at an all-day conference when the news broke that two planes had flown into the World Trade Centre towers.

Quaintance, 37, and fellow journalist and New Zealander Rae Lamb's journalistic instincts took over, and they headed out on to the street to report.

"We didn't intend to go to Ground Zero but that was where we ended up.

"My first reaction was disbelief, really, and initially at least it was difficult to grasp the enormity of the situation. But as a journalist the instinct to report on what was unfolding was quite overwhelming too.

"I remember calling my mother in Wellington in the middle of the night and saying: 'When you wake up you'll find out something terrible has happened but you just need to know I'm alright'."

The pair were confronted by a police cordon but Quaintance's press pass meant they were allowed inside.

"There was no-one inside the cordon except for rescue workers and a few disoriented survivors and fighter jets were swooping overhead. At one point the police broke into a corner shop to get everyone water and someone handed out flimsy hospital masks in an attempt to protect us from the fumes.

"There was paper everywhere from the collapsed buildings and of course the smoke from the fires," Quaintance said.

"There was a feeling like anything could happen - that there could be another attack at any moment."

And then the 47-storey World Trade Center 7 collapsed and a fire-fighter screamed "run".

Quaintance said it was a "surreal" feeling running down the street, enveloped in a cloud of smoke and being blanketed in dust.

But they stayed on, updating New Zealand media outlets on what was happening around them.

"We interviewed rescue workers, mainly, as they queued for the payphone to tell their families they were alive. I also remember interviewing a priest who said 'It's Armageddon' which was pretty unsettling."